OJR school officials review $34M renovation project

SOUTH COVENTRY — The Owen J. Roberts School Board hopes to award a contract for renovation of East Coventry and East Vincent Elementary schools by the end of 2013 and complete the project by fall of 2016, with students from both schools moving into East Vincent for the 2015-16 school year.

Architect Jeffrey Chambers, who is designing the building projects, reviewed plans for renovating East Coventry and East Vincent elementary schools at a school board building and grounds committee meeting Monday. The board also heard from a representative of Johnson Controls Inc., who presented a plan to provide energy consultation services for the project at a cost of $32,791.

The renovations will create equity among the district’s five elementary buildings. East Coventry and East Vincent Elementary are the only district schools that do not have air conditioning, and both have large student populations over the 550 student capacity.

The estimated $34 million project won’t significantly increase the size of the schools, but will provide appropriate spaces for a variety of learning environments — such as support classes, commons areas and music rooms — not currently available in those buildings.

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The proposed time line for the project calls for awarding a bid for the East Vincent Elementary renovation by November or December of this year. Construction of a new two-story addition would begin in January 2014 and is expected to take about 12 months to complete.

In November 2014, the schedule calls for beginning renovation of the East Vincent primary wing. At that point, the students currently taught in that part of the building would be moved into the new wing. Once the renovation is complete, in August 2015, East Coventry students would move into the East Vincent building, where they will be taught for one year while the East Coventry building undergoes renovations.

During the summer of 2016, the oldest portion of the East Vincent building, constructed in 1953, will be demolished, and the East Coventry renovation will be completed. East Coventry students will return to their renovated school in the fall of 2016.

Chambers said there would be adequate space in East Vincent during the 2015-16 school year for both school populations — which currently have a combined total of over 1,000 students — since, at that point the oldest wing will not have been demolished and the new wing will be completed.

According to Superintendent Michael Christian, both schools would maintain their own identities while sharing the East Vincent building. That is, East Coventry students will remain in classes with students and teachers from the East Coventry Elementary School, rather than being mixed into East Vincent classes.

Chambers stressed that busing and safety issues had been taken into account when planning for the year the two schools would be combined. A parent pickup and drop off area would be created to keep those students arriving or departing in cars separate from the 27 buses that will be transporting students each day. A temporary overflow parking area would also be constructed, doubling the amount of spaces currently available.

In addition, a temporary wall will provide a barrier between the playground and the construction area while the new wing is being built.

“We wanted to make sure we had a safe play area, safe drop-off and pick-up, and a separate parent pickup area,” said Christian.

The buildings and grounds committee also heard a presentation from Johnson Controls Inc., the Plymouth Meeting firm that installed a solar powered energy system on the high school and middle school roofs last year and instituted a number of energy conservation measures in all district buildings.

Phil Solomon, account executive for Johnson Controls, has proposed providing energy consultation services while planning renovations of the East Coventry and East Vincent Elementary Schools. If the contract is approved, Solomon would work with Chambers to determine what energy systems would be most cost effective at both schools.

Johnson Controls would look at a number of issues including the possibility of installing solar panels, or adding design elements that could increase natural light and decrease the need for electric lighting. They would also weigh the cost of bringing natural gas to the schools against the price of other heating and cooling systems.

“We would build models that look at the buildings to understand not just the initial cost impact, but the long-term operational costs,” Solomon said. “We want to be as green as possible, but only as far as it makes financial sense.”

He noted that it’s essential to consider the long-term costs of operating an energy system, rather than only looking at the up-front costs of installing a system.

“These are big decisions you’re making. It’s good to have financial implications over the long-term,” he said.

The building and grounds committee agreed to move the Solomon’s proposal onto the full board for consideration at the next board meeting.